The Opechee

 

This is the second to last in a series of collaborative posts highlighting the relationship between poetry and painting. 

Let us start with a simple story: Rikyu, the founder of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, was asked by one of his pupils, 'What is the purpose of the Tea Ceremony? Why the complex set of steps and mannerisms?' Rikyu replied, 'First we boil the water, then we prepare the tea, then we drink it, that's all.' His pupil frowned and looked on despairingly. Rikyu went on, 'Show me someone who can really do these things and I will become his disciple.'

We don't often know it, but everything we do is filled with mannerisms, so much so that we look to them as a liberating quality, as something that gives us individuality and frees us from the grasp of others. As a matter of fact, it is at just that moment that they begin to entrap us more and more within banality and habit. Who knows how to eat, who knows how to stand, without becoming completely bored with it, or losing touch? We now read and look at pictures or paintings merely as a form of consumption rather than putting ourselves into focus and becoming aware of what welds up inside of us the moment our body or mind is occupied. This is the great quality that we should all be searching for. 

So who can be in complete harmony when they do a task such as reading poetry or looking at a painting? Who can go on with such ceremony a thousand times as if it were the first? It doesn't take a god or a superhero.  Show that person to me, and I will follow them.

The excerpts were taken from the book The Uninitiated (link in bio) and the original artwork was composed by @indrebeinarte on the theme of the selected poem.

**Monochrome ink painting is the basis of Indre's artistic expression.  It allows her to capture the essence of an object, leaving aside unnecessary details, finding depth in simplicity, in emptiness, and in unfilled space.  In her work, she strives to embody the principles of East Asian aesthetics, which are manifested in her works through minimalist compositions, subtlety, and calligraphic strokes.

Douglas Thornton